InterVIEW: Lawrence Golan
September 10, 2010 by Heather Caro
Lawrence Golan
InterVIEW
Name: Lawrence Golan
Age: 43
Occupation/years in field? New Music Director and Conductor of the Yakima Symphony Orchestra. 20 years.
Hometown? Chicago
What brought you to Yakima? I came to Yakima to become the new Music Director and Conductor of the Yakima Symphony Orchestra.
What’s your favorite Yakima “find” so far? The sun! (It was nowhere to be found when I was here back in January!)
What are your musical influences? My musical influences include my father, who was a member of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra for 49 years; Leonard Bernstein, who influenced me both in the virtue of versatility and the importance of sharing classical music with the masses; and Beethoven, who revolutionized the world of music.
Nonmusical? My biggest nonmusical influence is my wife, Cecilia. She tells me what to wear and what to eat. Also, because of Ceci, who is from Buenos Aires, Argentina, I learned to speak Spanish (so I could understand what she was yelling at me about!)
Do certain instruments in an orchestra attract certain personality types? Oh yes, but I probably shouldn’t get into that here—I wouldn’t want to offend any of my colleagues!
Is there a particular performance that stands out as your best ever? What made it so special? The highlight of my violin career was when I performed the Bach Double Violin Concerto with my father, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Daniel Barenboim. What made it so special? I was performing with my father, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Daniel Barenboim!
As a conductor, one of my best performances was of Beethoven Symphony No. 9. What made it so special was the fact that every single seat in the auditorium was filled and 300 people were standing in the aisles. That brought an air of excitement and electricity to the performance that was just amazing, both for those of us on stage and for everyone in the audience. I will be working very hard to bring that sort of excitement here to Yakima.
What was your first job? Worst job? My first job, right out of college, was with the Honolulu Symphony Orchestra. That was rough. My worst job was as conductor of a youth orchestra that was the second best in town. What was bad wasn’t the fact that they were second best, but that they were content to be second best. I had to work very hard just to establish a mindset of striving to be the best. Even though we never got there, we got a whole lot better trying!
What is currently on your personal playlist? Frankly, I don’t listen to a whole lot of music purely for enjoyment. I am always preparing for upcoming performances. That being said, since I completely love what I do, it is all for enjoyment.
Describe your ideal day in the Valley. Going out and meeting people in the community, telling them about our plans for the new Yakima Symphony, and sensing their excitement about what we’re doing.
Glass half full or half empty? Half full—but then fill it up!
What would you say is your most annoying habit? I had to ask my wife about that one. She said that it’s when I don’t hear the baby crying in the middle of the night. (That could have something to do with the earplugs I wear.)
What is the one thing you regret not learning to do? To fly a plane. That could’ve come in real handy for a conductor.
What can Yakima expect from your performances? First of all, they can expect that most concerts will have a combination of pieces that they know and love and pieces that they’ve never heard before. However, I expect that they will enjoy the new ones just as much as the familiar ones. In addition, the audience can expect for every musician on stage to be playing their heart out and giving everything they have to each and every performance. They can expect my interpretations of the music to be faithful to the intentions of the composers and to be historically informed. Finally, they can expect each performance to be a balanced combination of passion and precision.
What’s the best advice you’ve ever received? When I was 13 years old, I told my father that I wanted to become a professional musician. He told be to forget about it–that I wasn’t talented enough.
If you were remembered for one thing, what would you like it to be? My work ethic. I work tirelessly to make up for my limited talents.
If you could retire tomorrow what would you do? Become a symphony orchestra conductor.
If you could boil down into one sentence your life philosophy, what would it be? Success is not defined by achieving your dream; it is having a dream, and doing everything within your power to realize it.
The Essential Guide? – Walla Walla and the Rest
August 6, 2010 by Chris
Have you ever picked up a travel or restaurant guide and been frustrated that the guide focused on one neighborhood when the guide was supposed to cover an entire region? Even without knowing the entire picture, sometimes you can just tell certain areas are getting short-sheeted. Sure, all areas may be listed and the major attractions covered, but it’s frustrating when one area has every single coffee shop listed but the other neighborhood only has the major hotels.
I first read Paul Gregutt’s Washington Wine and Wineries: The Essential Guide, 1st edition in September, 2008. Barb and I had moved to Washington in July, 2008 and on finding this book, I knew I had to have it to navigate through Washington Wine Country since Washington wine was just becoming a consuming passion of mine at that time. Barb bought me the book for my birthday and I consumed it cover to cover immediately, have kept it, and treated it as a reference text ever since. Whenever I taste or try a new Washington winery, now closing in on 200 wineries for us, I refer to Mr. Gregutt’s notes and rankings of the wines, wineries, vineyards, etc… Sometimes I agree with the opinions given, sometimes I don’t, but I have always found what Paul had to say interesting and his writing style is so readable that even this sometimes dense text, on a perhaps mundane subject, comes alive.
This book was also highly regarded in the wine press and got glowing reviews from the Wine Spectator and Wine Advocate (competing publications to the author’s Wine Enthusiast), New York Times, wine bloggers (including this one), and wine writers everywhere. I’ve seen copies of the book in libraries, book stores, wine shops, and tasting rooms across Washington State. I don’t have anything to substantiate this, other than the publication of a second edition, but I’d imagine the book is selling very well.
As I previously mentioned, at the Wine Blogger’s Conference a month ago in Walla Walla, I scooped up an advance copy of the Second Edition of this book for review. I was pretty excited about it and enjoyed reading the book over the past month, mainly looking for changes from the first edition, but also trying to maintain a first time reader’s view. Since I’m not a first-time reader or even a new explorer of Washington’s wines, I think it’s interesting to see how I now view this work.
This Second Edition carries all of the same positive notes of the first. The writing style is still exceptionally readable, and the depth of knowledge of Washington and its wines is impressive. The fact that this second edition comes so close behind the first, less than five years, is explained well and the book truly does stand on its own as a significant work. Of course, much of the material is taken from the first edition, but the new reader, or even a reader of the first edition, can learn vast amounts of information by reading this book.
The expanded section on Washington’s Top Vineyards (now twenty vs. ten in the first edition), I think, is well chosen and reflects the positive growth many others have observed in the quality of the fruit being produced in a large and growing number of Washington’s vineyards. I certainly don’t have much of a historical perspective on Washington State, but the history of the state’s federally-designated American Viticultrual Areas, or AVA’s, and possible future developments in some of the key wine regions of the state are also an updated and fair assessment in my view.
All that said, there are some issues I have with this edition and the book in general that I think make it hard for the book to support its subtitle “The Essential Guide”. It is true that this could certainly be Mr. Gregutt’s essential guide, or “A Guide” but I think there are a number of flaws in his method and in this book that make it hard for the wine community of Washington in general to accept this book as the end-all-be-all of Washington wine books. That, to me, is what “essential” means, a complete review of everything worth reviewing on a particular topic, in this case Washington’s wines and wineries.
First, I’ll suggest that it is impossible for any one reviewer to give a fair comparative review to all 650-700 Washington wineries. I think the number of active, producing wineries in the state is actually probably closer to 450-500, but still, that is a large number and that number has grown almost exponentially in the past 5-10 years, from about 150-200 wineries just at the beginning of this century to the number listed today. The book addresses this explosive growth of Washington’s wine industry, hence the need for this 2nd edition, but with that explosive growth, I think the challenge of finding and identifying all of the essential wineries in Washington is simply too much for one person.
The implication of this book, especially with the expanded winery list to about half of the state’s total, is that Mr. Gregutt is telling the reader, buy or visit this group of Washington wineries. Though not stated, it is certainly implied that if a winery is not listed, then it is not “essential” and therefore may be overlooked or bypassed by the reader with no loss to them. Visitors or wine buyers from outside the region are very likely to follow this implied advice.
Secondly, I have a hard time accepting this book as a fair slice of the best wineries Washington has to offer. I don’t have a problem with a ranking of the top half of anything, that’s what I’d be interested in if I was looking for the best restaurants, best shoe stores, whatever; but I hope that slice of the best is evenly and fairly distributed across whatever segment the author presents as his or her scope of review. One thing that makes me think that there are wineries left out of this work that should be “essential” is a simple mathematical analysis of the wineries that are listed. It is well known that Mr. Gregutt lives in both Seattle and Waitsburg in Walla Walla County. It is without question that many of the state’s leading wineries and winemakers are located in Walla Walla. But the math of this book would tell me that practically ALL of the wineries in Walla Walla are essential, while the wineries located elsewhere in the state are, as a group, much less worthy.
This guide lists 89 Walla Walla wineries in its ranked winery section. Many are rated highly and in each category, from 5/5 stars on down, there are more Walla Walla wineries than from any other segment of the state, even including the “Want More?” list that is buried in the section on Rising Star wineries. Assuming there are about 100 active wineries in Walla Walla, that’s almost a 90% inclusion rate. If you assume the wineries in the remainder of the state are about 350 in number (conservatively low), the inclusion of 146 of those wineries would suggest that 42% of non-Walla Walla wineries are “essential”, less than half the inclusion rate of Walla Walla.
This concentration of the best wineries in the state in one area is perhaps possible, but other reviewers, or certainly an editorial board of reviewers from all areas of the state, are likely to disagree with this wide of a disparity of “essential” wineries in the state. The other main wine regions of Washington with concentrations of wineries are Woodinville (near Seattle), and the Yakima Valley and its “daughter” AVA’s between the cities of Yakima and the Tri-Cities. These areas have a higher inclusion rate than the rest of the state, about 60% for Woodinville* and about 50% for Yakima, but even these areas trail far behind Walla Walla in numbers of wineries included and the strength of those ratings, both in hard numbers and relative to the total winery population of the state. Outside those areas, the inclusion rate is very small and less than a third of all wineries in the Seattle/Puget Sound (besides Woodinville), Columbia Gorge, Lake Chelan, Spokane and North Central Washington regions are included as “essential”.
*[For Woodinville Wineries, I’m counting those with primary winery and tasting room in Woodinville. For wineries who have tasting rooms in Woodinville but are made elsewhere (and there are some of these) I’ve counted them in their “home” region.]
Third, a twist to this that makes the domination of Walla Walla as the essential wine region of the state even stranger to me is the fact that Washington’s wine makers have almost equal access to the same grape supplies regardless of where the wineries and tasting rooms may be located. The large vineyard acreages of the state are in the Columbia Valley (mainly the area north of the Tri-Cities up to Quincy that is not further subdivided), the Yakima Valley and its daughter AVA’s (Red Mountain, Rattlesnake Hills, and Snipes Mountain), the Horse Heaven Hills, and the Wahluke Slope. In other areas, including the Walla Walla AVA, planted vinifera acres are growing, but still winemakers from all over the state, including Walla Walla, buy large volumes of grapes from the other “export” growing AVA’s. This fact is discussed in Mr. Gregutt’s book and is highlighted by the Top Vineyards section where the vast majority of the vineyards listed, 15 out of 20, do not even have estate wineries, and most of the others also provide more grapes to outside wineries than they consume “in house”. The exceptions to this are Cayuse and Cold Creek (owned by Chateau St. Michelle) even though those vineyards too are occasionally sourced to other winemakers.
It should also be noted that the Top Twenty vineyards, without spoiling their identities, are distributed pretty much following the pattern described above on where the big acres are. The Yakima Valley and its daughters get eight spots, Columbia Valley gets four spots, Horse Heaven Hills and Walla Walla get three each, and the remaining two are split between the Wahluke Slope/Ancient Lakes area and the Columbia Gorge.
This vineyard/winemaker distribution, which is fairly unique to Washington state, means garagiste wineries in Spokane, or South Seattle, or Vancouver have almost the same opportunity to make good wines as the winemakers of Walla Walla. Mr. Gregutt’s book suggests they are only about a third as successful in doing that. How could those wineries even hope to compete or stay in business if that ratio was accurate, when the growth rate and sustainability rate of wineries all across the state seems to be fairly even?
Fourth, and I think this is a mitigating factor, Mr. Gregutt does not clearly, in this book, provide his policy for sampling and reviewing wines and/or wineries. I know of his policies from reading his blog and other work and know that for a winery to receive consideration they must submit samples to Mr. Gregutt; he does not seek out the wineries, they must seek him. There is no harm inherent in that policy since Mr. Gregutt is an established wine critic, but there are certainly opportunities for wineries to be missed in a population of 450-500. I also know his ranking of 100 top wines each year, now included as a chapter in this book, is subject to the same policy, i.e. a winery must submit for review to be included. That is how Cayuse, one of the top rated wineries in the state has top ten wines, #3, #6, and #2 for the first 3 years of these ratings, but is not even listed in the top 100 for 2009. I think this policy and perceived inconsistency should at least be explained to the reader.
I firmly believe there is plenty of gray area for any listing of “top wineries”, “best wines”, or what is “essential” no matter what the subject matter. However, I’ll provide an example of a winery in Washington State that I believe has a strong case for inclusion on any list of “essentials”. Also provided is a listing for a winery that Mr. Gregutt includes as a Rising Star. Maybe that winery is or will be an essential, but for now I think its inclusion is simply home cooking, and while I don’t have a problem with that as long as that’s what it is and is disclosed, in this book its inclusion as an “essential” winery likely means another winery elsewhere in the state was left out.
The example of a winery excluded from this book, even though I’ve never purchased or even sampled their wines, is Adams Bench of Woodinville. It is a relatively new winery, like many other just-as-new wineries listed in Mr. Gregutt’s book. To my knowledge, Adams Bench has never submitted a wine to Mr. Gregutt for review, but they are consistently ranked very highly by other raters. One rater in particular, Mr. Rand Sealey, has been drinking and reviewing Washington wines, as well as wines from all over the world, for the past 40+ years. Again, palate preferences obviously may explain some differences, but Mr. Sealey rated an Adams Bench wine a perfect 20 out of 20, the first time ever for a Washington wine in his reviews. Also, all of the ratings I’ve seen for Adams Bench wines by Mr. Sealey, Wine Advocate and other raters have been consistently at or above 90 points (equivalent). CellarTracker, an on-line database where users log and track and rate their wines, currently includes 12 wines from Adams Bench with a total inventory of 231 bottles. Those Adams Bench wines that have been drank and rated by CellarTracker members agree with the critic ratings and average around 90 points. By comparison just on the inventory side, of the ten wineries that begin with the letter “M” (randomly selected) in Mr. Gregutt’s chapter on Rising Stars, only Maryhill (founded in 1999) and Milbrandt (a 10,000+ case winery with national distribution) have more wines purchased and tracked in Cellar Tracker. How such a winery as Adams Bench can be omitted from “the essential guide” to Washington’s wineries is beyond me.
On the flip side of this disparity, a hometown “winery” of Mr. Gregutt’s, the Laht Neppur Brewing Company of Waitburg near Walla Walla is included in the book as a Rising Star. Laht Neppur is a local micro-brewery that produces beer for consumption on-site though they do allow for growlers and kegs to be taken off-site. As a sideline, recently Laht Neppur began making wines, and to date has released one dessert wine, one red wine, and one white wine though I don’t believe the wines are distributed for off-site sales. I’ve never tasted Laht Neppur’s wine, or their beer, but I’ve also never seen them get any other reviews or have any acclaim that would warrant inclusion as an “essential” Washington winery. In CellarTracker, there are approximately 424,000 bottles of Washington wine in users’ inventories; there are 1,131 producers listed. This high number of producers is due to some duplication/typos, inclusion of out of state wineries using Washington fruit, and apparently quite a few home wine makers in Washington who’ve used CellarTracker to track their wine. As of today, there are zero Laht Neppur wines listed or rated in CellarTracker and the winery is not even listed as a producer. What could possibly make Laht Neppur an essential Washington winery?
Mr. Gregutt’s review of Laht Neppur ends with this sentence:
“Don’t expect to find these wines anywhere but in the neighborhood anytime soon, but it is yet another reason to make the tiny town of Waitsburg – home, too, of jimgermanbar and The Whoopemup Hollow Café – a must-see on any visit to Walla Walla wine country.” [my bold]
Funny, I thought the title of the book was Washington Wines & Wineries, not A Visitor’s Guide to Walla Walla County.
Again, I believe this book is an extremely valuable resource for anyone interested in Washington wine. I also believe though that the full picture is not told by this edition and a reader needs to be aware of the methods and preferences of the author, Mr. Gregutt. Walla Walla is a beautiful and burgeoning wine region that I look forward to exploring more as I continue on my journey through Washington Wine Country and so far the wines I’ve sampled from Walla Walla stand up to, but are not ahead of, wines made elsewhere in the state.
I’ve seen discussed quite a bit recently, there is Walla Walla and then there is the “Rest of Washington”, and, in my opinion, the “Rest” is equally as essential as Walla Walla to gaining a full view of what Washington Wine Country has to offer.
_____________________
POST SCRIPT:
Finally, there are a number of factual errors that should be corrected. No offense to the fine folks at University of California Press (who did give me this book afterall), but an editorial review by other Washington State reviewers I believe would eliminate many of these mistakes.
One in particular that has bugged me, and it was in the first edition is well, is Mr. Gregutt’s description of the drive from Yakima to Cold Creek vineyard, one of the Top Vineyards in the state.
“Heading east from Yakima on Highway 24, you drive for about 35 miles…The Umptanum Ridge is on your North, the Yakima Ridge is on your south, the Rattlesnake Hills are the next ridge over from there.”
This is incorrect; Highway 24 bisects the Yakima and Rattlesnake Hills ridgelines. Close to Cold Creek, at mile marker 32, the highway tops the Yakima Ridge, but most of the vast area between the Umptanum and Yakima Ridgelines is part of the Yakima Firing Center. Readers following Mr. Gregutt’s directions might get arrested by the Military Police, or worse yet, BLOWN UP!
Cheers from the Rest!
Christmas in June
July 17, 2010 by Chris
This is Day Two (or Three depending on how you count) of the WBC’10. Day Zero was the Yakima Valley tour and Yesterday was Day One in Walla Walla.
My brain is on sensory overload (so this blog may be a little disjointed) and I have been described by Barb as a (really big) kid on Christmas morning. The presents keep coming for two more days though so there will lots more to absorb.
So far, my highlights have been meeting some great bloggers and industry folks from all over the U.S. and the world, Argentina, Spain, Australia, South Africa, and Georgia (actually I think they were from the state, not the country). Barb and I even met a very nice young lady from Tennessee who now lives in New York and works for Rias Baixas Wines, a Spanish wine distributor. Chandni seemed quite distressed that she now has to wear shoes.
Also a highlight from Thursday was meeting Dick Boushey, Joe Hattrup, Wade Wolfe, and Hugh Shiels for the first time, all top notch wine growers from the Yak. Matt Rawn from Copeland (and Two Mountain) was there too, and while he grows great fruit too, he’s more like an old friend to us by now. I’ll take my time writing about those experiences and the wines these other vineyards and wineries have produced in the near future. Another neat experience was meeting Becky Yeaman (Wade’s wife) of Thurston Wolfe and finding the inspiration for Sweet Rebecca, which by chance we had just drank the prior night as our dessert. An adorable name for a wine and the namesake was just as nice. I need to learn more about Wade and Becky and I’ll seek them out this summer after the hubbub has died down a bit.
I’ve traded away most of my Let’s Make a Deal wine and have gotten some great wines from Canada and California in return, with more pledged to be on the way. I also brought over about a half case of other wines that I’ll barter with over the next couple of days. Anybody here who wants some, look me up, Twitter @yakyakwine. What I have left are Syncline Cuvee Elena from the Gorge, Severino Red Wine from the Yak, White Heron Rousanne from Quincy, and Pangaea Cab Sauv from Horse Heaven Hills. Other than the Syncline, I’d imagine the other wines aren’t available outside Washington and they’re all nice juice and I’m anxious to trade for juice from anywhere. Even California.
The Walla Walla highlights have been many but my favorite so far is meeting Dana Dibble of Riverhaven Cellars. Dana is the vineyard owner and grower of some truly nice Syrah and Cabernet Sauvignon. He also grows some other important fruit and I asked him to sign my bottle as Prune Grower. He happily obliged and we had a really nice conversation about the difference between plums and prunes, which before yesterday I always thought were the same thing. Funny though, after drinking Dana’s wines, Barb and I both had to make a beeline for the restroom.
Cleaned out and ready to go, there will be more later from The Walla. Nah, that doesn’t have the same ring as The Yak.
The Color Addiction
June 29, 2010 by jenndag
When I was little..and given the option to choose my own piece of clothing, adornment, shoe, ball or toy,of any type, I remember choosing the MOST vivid, lightning bolt crazy colors possible. I had no qualms about being seen from a 6 mile radius, or heads turning with curiosity as I accompanied my mother on her various errands. I had no fear of this soundless wonder that can be our best friend, or as I soon learned our worst enemy. It was 5th grade and of course I chose for my school picture day, hot goldenrod yellow skinny jeans paired lovingly with a red, green, yellow and and blue diamond patterned mock neck sweater with shoulder pads. As I proudly strolled through the doors of my classroom, some beast of a child informed me that I looked like “mustard and ketchup threw up”on me! This prompted an intense day of brooding and obsessing over my outfit gone wrong, and as a fifth grade girl concerned mostly with social issues and my placement within them, I vowed never again combine so many primary colors all at once, and try to avoid much of the thing at all. Needless to say I was scarred, and managed to ignore color for quite some time thanks to the fabulous shabby chic fad in the nineties (mostly white things and weathered wood), and then the “all beige” fad that soon followed. I was unable to deny my lust for color much longer when I began art school and actually had to buy and use paint (which is usually colored). I also had to photograph things that inevitably contained bits of color and soon, after much resistance, I was completely immersed again in my long lost addiction. Once again I was happy to apply color and painting gave me a sense of freedom from my beige prison. After a lot of hard work and retail therapy in the area of jewel tones and chartreuse green, I feel mostly back to my true self, I am still working on long term color commitments, (those are tough..aka walls, house, etc.) All that aside, I am happy to bring you some photos of my colorful last weekend . Talk about immersion! I went to the Summer Solstice Parade in Seattle..now those are some colorful, HAPPY folks! How great to see people totally letting go of themselves, unafraid to dress in a plastic bag dress, or cotton balls. Not to mention the zombies and belly dancers. And the umbrella ladies. .
Hula Hooping women of wonder...
Totally mesmerising...the beautiful belly dancers
Cheetah girls...these little ones were just chilling in their wagon. So cute
After the parade, we went to the most glorious place ever, Ray’s Boathouse. Sablefish, Amazingly presented, and SO colorful.
What a beautiful place to eat.
Last but not least..my favorite thing ever, Vintage trailers. I will have to describe in another post how dear these little tin treasures are to my heart. I am a sucker for all things old, but pretty and shiny and old, with sweet banana seat bikes parked out front with scalloped canopies protecting the inhabitants from the harsh sun..(or in this case, torrential downpours..) Thank you city of Roslyn for putting on such a wonderful exhibition- next year I hope all the trailers can make it, including my own little trailer who is getting her TLC right now. Here is a feast for your Mid-Century love fest …and these are just the outsides. I will let you just imagine the insides. My camera could not do justice. Enjoy!
Lo and behold the "Pleasure Craft" Be still my heart.The banana seat gods are smiling down on this one...
The precious pink-ness...
brown and cream trailer, hot pink metal patio chairs..oh and a ray of sunlight streaming into my photo. sigh.
wonderfully grungy outside, and the engine was GLEAMING..this old car towed a huge airstream-like trailer
I call this the Purple People Eater…:)
Have a colorful rest of your week…Cheers…:)
So, Different begins.
June 17, 2010 by jenndag
I don’t really mean to be different..I don’t actually think I am. I have stories, funny, dramatic, silly, wierd, cute..etc. just like everyone does. I think the only difference is that I like to talk about them. I really am not too worried about how I might look to someone as I describe how I found a dead bird in my car after months of just thinking something smelled “off” haha. I just like to tell people about my life, things I have experienced, how I relate, and where I am going next. I am so flattered that Yakima Magazine asked me to contribute a blog to their site, I love to try new things, experience other cultures and try to discover what is new and different in Yakima and our surrounding state of Washington. We are so lucky to live so close to SO many diverse types of environments, rainforest, desert, city, rural, snow, water, ocean, lakes..they all draw so many different types of people and interests. Yakima being the center, we sometimes are content to stay where we are, and not realize that so many people around us are doing some fantastic things..and they are not very far away! I want to find these people that are doing some original and innovative things, living creatively and immersing themselves in projects and ambition to live big in our valley and beyond and not afraid to be different, or against the grain. I hope you will stay connected here, and use these blogs as jumping off points, find your own new thing, and tell us about it. Yakima is opening up, we are learning about who we are, who is around us and what we really have to offer . A great example was this past weekend’s artfest. I participated with other local artists and was so excited by all the people that came out to support us and ask questions and hang out with us on one of our only warm days so far this year. I would have taken more pictures, except I had just shot a wedding and my battery died..oops. Thanks to everyone who put out such great work and helped out. Even the people that just sat and kept the artists company for the day! More to come on here next week, huge busy traveling weekend so hopefully I will have some colorful surprises from the Roslyn Vintage Trailer Rally, and the Fremont Solstice Parade in Seattle. Have a wonderful weekend people, and please…bring back our sun;)
LeAnne Ries
Art Fest 2010
OTB # 12 – Not So Fine Print – Part 2 of probably about 3
May 20, 2010 by Chris
So I’ve introduced the appellation of origin labeling topic. Why does this matter? First I’ll share why I think it matters to the regulators, then I’ll tell you why it matters from my perspective as a relatively new wine lover.
The regulators care about where the grapes are sourced, and where it is bottled, and what the labels say so that the correct taxes can be assessed to its production, import/export, and sales. It’s also handy for enforcing the antiquated 3-teir system of distribution in the U.S. that inhibits wineries and consumers from meeting in the marketplace without having someone in the middle taking a share of the pie. Also, along with most of the other laws from the TTB, this protects the consumer. If a wine is maliciously mislabeled, consumers can be assured they aren’t buying one thing, but maybe getting something else. The cynic in me says this last reason is probably secondary to the TTB; they’re mainly interested in the flow of cash and booze within the rules of their game.
Why I think it matters, and should to anyone who’s become obsessed with wine as a hobby (like me), is that the source of the grapes is tied inseparably to the concept of terroir and without a specific location defined, the wine flavors have no meaning for those of us looking for terroir in a glass. Terroir is the French word for soil and in wine parlance it means a sense of place that is imparted to a wine by its vineyard location including things such as soil type, weather patterns specific to a site (micro-climate), sun angle due to slope and row orientation of the vine rows, and sometimes even a specific row or vine within a vineyard. I’ve had winemakers tell me the rows of a vineyard are influenced by localized soil type and rocks and protection from wind by outer rows. This all makes sense to me even though I’ve never farmed more than 10’ by 10’ garden plot.
So I want to know where, as specifically as possible, my wine and its grapes originate. Washington wineries, because of the “may” clause and the complicated embedding of AVA’s, lots of times, in fact all the time, have a choice as to how they list Appellation of Origin. They can avoid the AVA system all together and label “Washington State” or even “American” if they so choose. Some use Washington State, though I’ve never seen American used here. The next big catch-all for Eastern Washington (95%+ of all Washington wines are made from wines grown here) is Columbia Valley. Lots of wines are labeled Columbia Valley. Even though there are vast areas of the Columbia Valley, and some of the state’s best vineyards, currently not in any more specific AVA, unless the vineyard is also listed, it’s really not much better than Washington State for telling you the source, and terroir, of the wine. The smaller AVA’s with the Columbia Valley gets you closer, and in my opinion, the best identified are the vineyard designate wines that sometimes tell you the exact location of the grapes origin, at least within a few hundred acres or so. I don’t think the federal government regulates vineyard designate labels. They don’t collect any revenue from vineyards directly, so the AVA and state labels serve their purposes.
I recently picked up a shipment of wines I bought from Paul Z. at Full Pull. I purposefully bought wines Paul had advertised from Yakima Valley and its embedded AVA vineyard sources. Paul is one of the few, if not the only, retailers I’ve ever encountered who does a fabulous job getting to the bottom of this topic and identifying vineyard sources. To that group or eight or so wines, I’ve picked a few more from our cellar, or learned about elsewhere, that I know are similarly Yak and sub appellation vineyard wines. With this case of wine I made a matrix with the winery name and vintage and name of the wine, it place of production (wineries from all over the state use Yakima Valley grapes), the vineyard locations that I know about either from the label, winemaker notes, or winery information as provided by Paul (Mr. Z. is on his way to Portugal, so I hope I don’t get in trouble for using his info this way), and a list of what the winery has chosen as their label “Appellation of Origin”.
As a short analysis, I’ll say that I ranked these by what I feel are most specific labeling (to almost the point of overkill) to the least descriptive. I like more specific labels, so my favorite wines are at the top. I should note here that I haven’t even tasted most of these wines, but I’ve already picked my favorites from the words on the label.
In my next, and likely last, blog post devoted to this topic, I’ll try to dissect a little more about these labeling “strategies” and explain as a lay person, wine lover, and a relatively new resident to the State of Washington, why some of the strategies I see work for me and would make we want to buy this wine if I were wine shopping in say Atlanta, GA, Omaha, NE, or Yakima, WA for this wine.
And why some of them don’t.
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OTB Fun Fact: There are, in fact, rattlesnakes in the Rattlesnake Hills. That isn’t probably how the Hills got their name, it’s more likely due to their serpentine and bumpy and multi-colored ridge line as it snakes it’s way from Union Gap to the Horn Rapids (including Rattlesnake Mountain). Despite it’s name though, there are no elephants living on Elephant Mountain, which is the highest point in the Rattlesnake Hills.
OTB # 10 – Edgar Allen – Owen Roe 2008 Sinister Hand – Columbia Valley
May 9, 2010 by Chris
As the WBC Buster Bus crests the Rattlesnake Ridge, after a mile or so you’ll be in a location that will afford views of four of Washington’s AVA’s. The Bus itself will be in the Rattlesnakes Hills and/or Yakima Valley AVA. I’m not sure exactly where the boundary is, but this is the southeast end of the Rattlesnake Hills, and the AVA named after them will stretch to the north and west behind you. The Yakima Valley is the broad expanse in front of you and to the east and west following the course of the Yakima River. The sandstone colored hills in the distance to the south are the Horse Heaven Hills, and the smallish (from this distance) spine of steep ridge in the middle of the Yakima Valley looking toward the south southwest is Snipes Mountain.
On the horizon to the west are the real mountains. Pretty much due west is Mount Adams and about 20 degrees on the compass to the north is Mount Rainier. Before it blew up and deposited several inches of ash in this valley in 1980, Mount St. Helens was visible between the two other mountains. Welcome to the Yak.
Looking at my little tag list you’ll see the majority of the wines I’ve reviewed have been from Yakima Valley. That’s no accident since that’s the name of this blog and I like to buy local, drink local, and (by default)promote local Yakima products, in this case wine. For today’s review, I picked a wine made here, sourced from grapes of the Yak and Horse Heaven and sold just about everywhere in the U.S., Owen Roe’s 2008 Sinister Hand.
Somewhat remarkably it took us a while to discover this brand because Owen Roe doesn’t have a tasting room here or really even show up on the radar of many local Washington wine lists or travel literature. That’s partly because David O’Reilly started and still maintains his winery in St. Paul, Oregon. The initals OR could mean Owen Roe, O’Reilly, or Oregon. But many of their wines, particularly the Cabernet’s (both Sauvignon and Franc), Merlot, Syrah, Riesling, Chardonnay, and many blends are sourced from Washington’s Yakima Valley and adjoining and embedded AVA’s and made at its epicenter, Sunnyside. We first found Sinister Hand in a wine shop at Pike’s Place in Seattle and I was intrigued by the label. Both the macabre looking drawing on the front, and the “Made in Sunnyside, WA” on the back. We later bought this same wine in Chicago at a Binny’s and Barb shared it with her mom and sisters there. [Hi, Mom Beth, Deb, and Bethie, Happy Mothers Day gals!]
The story of the severed hand on the label of Sinister Hand is fantastic and reminded me of Edgar Allen Poe. Two Irish clans row racing across a lake. The first to touch land would claim it. The trailing clansman, as they near shore, lops off his left hand with a sword and throws it with his right, landing it on the bank ahead of his rival. He claimed the best farmland and prospered eventually becoming king. In my version of this story, David O’Reilly and his partner Peter Rosback raced across the Columbia River from Oregon at The Dalles and David hit Washington soil first, thereby earning the claim to the best vineyard sources. He chose the Yakima Valley and Horse Heaven Hills, while leaving the Cold Creek Vineyard and Celilo in the Gorge for Peter. I’ve never met either man, but I’d look for a stub on O’Reilly.
I opened my first bottle of Sinister Hand on Friday in Sunnyside while the girls in Chicago did the same. They paired with crabcakes and filet mignon for a Mother’s and Birthday Dinner. Since I was baching it, my pairing was Frosted Mini-Scooners followed by a handful of Ambrosia Chocolate Chips. This is a Rhone Blend of 62% Grenache, 35% Syrah, and 3% Mourvedre. The nose of the wine is HUGE, deep bright red fruit, strawberry, bing cherry with aromatics and a touch of menthol and damp earth. The midpalate is medium to heavy depth with nice fruit and balanced acids and tannins. The back end has lots of stuff going on, too; white pepper, cocoa, caramel, and a little heat. This is why we’ve become big fans of Washington Rhone Blends and this is the first time I’ve tasted this particular one. Priced under $20, this is a winner by any measure.
We’ve been trying to lure Barb’s mom and sisters to move West. After they tried this wine, I’ll make a wager with them, first one to lay a hand on the pillow of the bed in our basement apartment can have the claim. We even have a Cask of Amontillado for you in the back cellar.
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OTB Fun Fact – Even though she doesn’t live here (yet) the first writer in my family is my mother-in-law Beth, who is published mystery writer, Hot Clue. You need to get yourself out here, Mom, we heard rumors of a bottle fight in a tasting room over Spring Barrel Weekend. We need someone here to capture the more seemy side of life in the Yak.
Organic Wines, Biodynamic Farming & Sulfites in wine
April 22, 2010 by Heather Caro
Organic Wines, Biodynamic Farming & Sulfites in wine
By Damon Adam Lobato
Recently, Naches Heights, Washington applied for its own AVA (American Viticultural Area). The proposed appellation is 13,254 acres in size and will be newest Washington State AVA. Currently, 40 acres are being farmed organically and biodynamically in Naches Heights. If approved, Naches Heights will enjoy bragging rights as the country’s only all-organic appellation. The Tasting Room Yakima at Wilridge Vineyard are now at the forefront of it all getting asked the following questions daily. “What is biodynamic farming? What are organic wines? What are sulfites in wine?” And this blog is an attempt to clarify the differences.
What is Biodynamic Farming? Biodynamic is a method of farming that treats the vineyard as a living organism. Based on a philosophy created by Austrian scientist Rudolf Steiner in 1924, who was also the founder of the Waldorf school system, Steiner created the “spiritual science” of anthroposophy, which was to understand science through the spiritual world.
Because the soil is treated like a living organism, it is therefore necessary to build its “immune system” and maintain its health. Since pesticides and chemicals tend to deplete the nutrients of the soil, biodynamic methods ban the use of both. Instead, following lunar and cosmic patterns, homeopathic mixtures called “preparations” are used to nurture and protect the soil from pests and disease. For example, Preparation 500 calls for Cow manure fermented in a cow horn, which is then buried and over-winters in the soil. In short, the goal of biodynamic farming is to be in tune with the totality of life forces affecting the plant.
There are two main factors that make biodynamic farming distinctly different from organic farming. The first is the use of a complex system of herbal sprays and composting techniques, known as “preparations.” The second is the timing of the operations on the vineyard, which is strictly regulated by the movements of the spheres. Demeter (www.demeter-usa.org) is the international organization that certifies and monitors biodynamic farmers around the globe.
What are Organic wines? Organic wines defined by the USDA are “wines made from organically grown grapes and without any added sulfites.” The grapes are grown naturally without the aid of pesticides or chemicals. In order for this method to be successful, the farmer must maintain the soil through regular plowing and applications of organic composts. They also encourage biodiversity as well as cover crops to help create a stable environment. Certified Organic producers must follow rules and regulations in addition to a certification process administered by Organic certifiers.
What are sulfites and how are they used? Sulfites occur naturally in wine during the fermentation process, as well as occur naturally in your body and many other foods. In wine production, the addition of sulfites act as a preservative used to prevent oxidation, bacterial spoilage, and help stabilize the wine.
Wine is similar to a cut apple that rapidly turns brown; to prevent an apple from browning you add a little bit of lemon juice. The lemon juice does not change the flavor of the apple it just preserves the apple from breaking down quickly. Sulfites are the same for wine; they are wine’s version of lemon juice.
When a winemaker chooses not to use sulfites in the wine (organically made wines) they run the risk of having the taste and flavors vary from bottle to bottle and a decreased shelf life, quickly moving from fruity, to nutty, to cardboard, and then to vinegar.
A wine without added sulfites is going to be more fragile, lose its aromas and color, and eventually become muddy and cloudy. If too many sulfites are added it can affect the aroma and taste of a wine as well. The wine will smell and taste like burnt matches; harsh, bitter and pungent. Too many sulfites also cover errors in winemaking, similar to the use of too much oak treatment; the key is balance.
Oh, Wino
April 22, 2010 by Heather Caro
Dear Downtown Lovers,
I am over the moon excited for Spring Barrel Tasting this weekend! I can’t wait to see downtown bustling with people excited about one of my favorite things: wine! This is the first Spring Barrel that I’m attending, but I thought I would preview my favorite downtown wines from my favorite downtown wineries!
I like to belly up to the bar at Gilbert Cellars, while enjoying a glass of their Malbec. I had never heard of Malbec until I went to Gilbert Cellars, and it may be the closest thing to love at first sight than I’ve ever experienced. The powerful flavor always has me coming back for more!
Kana Winery’s Tempranillo makes me weak in the knees. I love this spicy red with its savory finish. Even though I identify myself as a red wine drinker, the Katie Mae also calls my name. It’s so crisp and a little sweet — perfect for an after dinner drink! I love going to Kana on a night that they have live music to sip on a glass of wine and chat with good friends.
At Tim’s Downtown Tasting Room, he features wines by the Naked Winery and Upland Estates, as well as serving Yakima Craft beers. The wines by Naked Winery are not for the bashful, with Naughty Chardonnay and Missionary Cabernet among the creative titles. I usually gravitate towards Upland’s Old Vines when I am visiting Tim’s.
So head downtown for Spring Barrel Tasting, this weekend, April 24th and 25th! I’ll see you there.
Xoxo
Downtown Diva
Wine Bloggers Conference ’10 Off the Bus Tour
March 31, 2010 by Chris
Many times in life it is better to be lucky than good. That is true in Las Vegas, though a little card counting doesn’t hurt, it explains in large part the life curve of many politicians, and it was certainly the case for me when I met Barb on the back deck of Terry’s house several years ago while I was helping move some furniture. In my wine drinking and blogging efforts I was fortunate (I guess) to stumble upon winechater.com and learn about the Wine Bloggers Conference that was planned for June, 2010 in Walla Walla, Washington.
At the time I didn’t know there was any such animal as a WBC and only vaguely even knew what blogging itself was. I had been mulling over putting down on paper or keyboard mine and Barb’s Washington wine experiences and had done a quite a bit of “research” one taste, one bottle at a time on our topic. After reading a little about the WBC-W2 inertia sort of took over and I signed up for the event because it looked like a fun time and a neat way to explore Walla Walla wines. That’s actually one area of Washington we hadn’t explored much though we’d been to the western outskirts on one Sunday drive and had heard many good things about the wineries and wines made there. That carrot, and fear of embarrassment since I’d signed up as a wine blogger, spurred me to learn the basic mechanics of interweb blogging and I started cranking out this stuff like what you are currently reading.
The fact that the wine blogging world, nascent beast that it is, was descending upon my home turf and would be visiting many of the places I’d already visited and have gotten to know slowly began dawning on me. Lucky me! The WBC or Bust bus tour was announced (see the neat logo with the bus at the right of my blog page.) This tour would start in Seattle and end in Walla Walla and unless they were planning on going down I-5 to Portland then coming around the horn at Umatilla, even without a GPS I knew they’d be driving the Yak.
Then the WBC conference itself announced its pre-conference and post-conference excursions to the Yakima Valley and Red Mountain respectively. I signed Barb and me up for the pre- and post- excursions right away. Even without a detailed itinerary, I knew I’d have a chance to observe the observers in a sort of inside the looking glass manner. Fifty or so people who endeavored to do what I was doing would be walking the vineyard rows I drive past every day and bellying up to the same tasting room bars that have my elbow prints permanently embossed.
When the final itinerary for the WBC or Bust tour was announced, I noticed (again unless helicopters or off terrain vehicles were to be used) that the bus of WBC Busters would be passing our mailbox (it’s sitting on top of an old wine barrel BTW) and in front of our house and that this was my chance to show off the local colors. A banner for State Route 241 was contemplated (but WADOT denied the permit), a suggestion was made to provide a full moon but I was confused since the bus would be passing in broad daylight, and Barb (again) refused to dress up in the Kay Kay Yak Yak Yak costume and stand at the end of the driveway offering free wine pours from the costume’s udders. Apparently there is a limit to our love.
One thought did occur to me that might work though. Starting where the Buster Bus was entering Eastern Washington, they’d be going to Cave B near the town of George. I could write blogs about the wines, wineries, and vineyards that this magical bus would stop at (or mainly pass) on it journey south, then east, then west, then back south, then west again, then back east again on it’s way through our neighborhood. Believe me, it may not seem like it’s hard to get lost when there is only one road, but we’ve seen countless cars and trucks stopped near our driveway and the intersection nearby that have obviously gotten disoriented by the twists and turns and ups and downs that are required to navigate this part of Eastern Washington.
Since I can do what I want here, I think I’ll start my Off the Bus tour a little further north up the Columbia River at what I think is one of the most spectacular view wineries I’ve ever visited called White Heron west of Quincy, then pick up the bus route at Cave B, and follow it across the Wahluke Slope, through the mid Columbia and Wautoma Valleys into the Yakima Valley, and past Red Mountain to the Tri-Cities. When the bus crosses the Snake River, I’ll turn it over to Catie or Paul or any of the other fine wine bloggers based in the land of Big Onions and repetitious Wallas.
I’ll try to stay close to the mapped bus route with a minor detour here or there, and for certain there will be an erratic post or two about the PANGANIBAN shenanigans, but I’d expect this journey to carry me though the months of April, May, and into Mid-June when Barb and I will be thumbing a ride on the bus as it makes its way to DuBrul vineyard where the WBC or Bust Bus and Pre-WBC Yakima Valley excursions will collide on June 24.